Thanks Murray
Exactly the info I was after.
Regards
Ian May
St Helens
Murray Lord wrote:
Hi Peter and Ian,
Yes I can provide a bit more information about how the app works. If
you go into iTunes you will see a few screenshots from the app. If
anyone has seen the iPhone version of the Sibley guide to US birds, this
one follows the same format.
At this stage there isn’t an iPad version. I think the intention is to
do one for iPads (and maybe other mobile phone formats) at some point
down the track. But I suppose that will depend on how well this one
sells. I don’t know what would happen if you tried to install this on
an iPad – but the pictures are designed to be viewed on a small screen
so probably wouldn’t look great on a bigger one.
There are several ways you can bring up a species, including searching
by typing its name, browsing alphabetically, or browsing by taxonomic
order. So if you want to identify a thornbill, you can bring up the
list of Thornbills by selecting T in the alphabetic list. Then you can
select the first species, and move through the remainder just by sliding
your finger horizontally as you finish looking at one species.
Additionally there are beta versions of a smart search and a way of
searching by location. The smart search allows you to tick boxes about
the bird’s size, shape and colour and then gives you a list of
suggestions. I think only beginner birders would want to use that. And
also you can set your location so you just browse the birds found in
that area. As these are beta versions they don’t work perfectly at that
stage. But (like all other apps) updated versions will be available at
no additional cost, so as bugs get ironed out they can be corrected and
the product updated – another advantage of this format over books.
When you bring up a particular species you see one picture of it on the
top half of the screen, and the start of the text at the bottom. You
can scroll through the pictures and text, or else by tapping either they
become full screen. So you can make a picture full screen (and even
bigger by tilting the device horizontally). In practice this means the
pictures are far bigger than in the printed version of the book.
Buttons let you bring up the distribution map and the menu of calls.
The calls aren’t as long as the recordings on the BOCA CDs, but there
are usually a couple of calls of each species (different call types or
different named subspecies). I have been in the field with Dave when
he’s recording and he’s a bit of a perfectionist (eg he never uses
playback in the field as he doesn’t want to end up with recordings that
might be a bit different to the call the bird makes in natural
conditions) and the calls seem technically very good.
To answer Ian’s question, this is a high level summary of what someone
who doesn’t have an iPhone or iPod touch would have to do to get this
working:
· Download iTunes to your computer. This is a free download
from Apple. Just googling iTunes will get you the link.
· Once you have iTunes running, there is a box in the top right
corner to search the iTunes shop. Search for Australian birds and a
link will come up. Clicking on the icon will let you have a look at
some screenshot pictures.
· If you decide to buy it, you have to set up an iTunes account
and give credit card details to Apple. Then you can click on a link to
buy it and it will be downloaded to your computer.
· However it is important to note that you can’t run the app on
your computer. You must own an iPhone or an iPod touch to get it to
work. Also note that it won’t work on iPods other than the iPod touch.
· So if you buy say an iPod touch, the final step is to connect
the iPod to your computer and “sync” it, which then copies the programme
from the computer to the iPod.
· Down the track you can periodically check via iTunes whether
updated versions of the apps you have bought are available, and if so
you can elect to download them and then next time you sync your iPod the
new version will replace the old version.
Hope this helps,
Murray
------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 9.0.862 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3210 - Release Date: 10/21/10 17:34:00
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
